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Incendiary Supports

Magnetic Fields - Love At The Bottom Of The Sea

So while it’s tempting to wonder what this back-to-basics rejection of innovation might mean, it makes far more sense to give in and simply enjoy what is almost certainly the best Magnetic Fields collection since… Bollocks. I thought I might be the first person this millennium to finish a review of a Magnetic Fields album without mentioning that record…

If you pause to think, you realise that there’s no way that a song called Your Girlfriend’s Face can possibly end up being nice. That the opening track to the Magnetic Fields’ latest is even more unpleasant than expected speaks to the fact the Stephen Merritt’s on top form again. There’s usually a conceit behind his albums. Only the durations of the songs clustering around the two minute mark hints at one here. Otherwise it’s classic template Magnetic Fields –electronic pop tunes à la (Depeche) mode, bearing smart and bitterly funny lyrics which, for all their apparent misanthropy, reveal a certain vulnerability.There’s something about this approach which means that the more throwaway Merritt’s songs initially sound, the more lasting their impact is. And the songs here are light of touch and fleet of foot. So time and again as they briskly yomp past, a lyric or a melody will snag, make you chuckle or make your heart leap and bring you back for another listen. And come back you do – far more than for many of his other recent albums where different avenues were explored. So while it’s tempting to wonder what this back-to-basics rejection of innovation might mean, it makes far more sense to give in and simply enjoy what is almost certainly the best Magnetic Fields collection since… Bollocks. I thought I might be the first person this millennium to finish a review of a Magnetic Fields album without mentioning that record…